Scandalous

Social media has provided people with information, exciting and entertaining news, and also a certain interpretation. Although, the Penn state scandal is awful and disgusting the media seems to only show the drama and consequences with the coaches. They do not seem to make known the schools efforts to help the victims. One of the tweets I found interesting and re-tweeted was the Penn state Altoona students raising $300,000 dollars to aid child abuse victims. This is a huge importance to our society because this group of students is attempting to move forward and stop sexual abuse. Why hasn't the media intensified the good samaritans of the school? They seem to be solely focused on the protesters, and vandalism. Power, media, and deviance intersect by the saying "absolute power corrupts absolutely". The more power a person has the more influential that person becomes; therefore, the media follows that person more closely. That person also has little room for error. When someone high in power does something in-humane they become the main definition of deviance. Their deviance is made known through the media for society to criticize. From a critical theorists perspective, the crime and cover up can be understood by saying that we use sport as an opiate. Sport numbs and dulls us from our own body and society. We can escape the conflicts of societal issues through sport. People in power, especially in power of sport, think they can escape conflicts through loopholes. The coaches knew they were doing something wrong, but somehow thought they could get away with it. Perhaps, because they were in a position of power. After the scandal came out to the public, the game of football has become more important than the victims that were abused. One of the other tweets that I re-tweeted was about penn state football players not playing until the school comes forward on all sexual rapes. No athlete would ever have the guts to put their collegiate career on hold for the better of the society. Sports have blinded us from the harsh realities of our social world. Personally, I find the entire situation disheartening. Sports are supposed to be a way for people to escape from the harsh realities of society. The PSU coaches have combined the sport world and real world. College, let alone college athletics, is supposed to be a safe heaven for people who are suffering from social injustices. Its upsetting that there is beginning to be no hope.

Kin 332I

Jenny Soza